A very brief history of eternity / Carlos Eire.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Eire, Carlos M. N.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Eternity--History of doctrines.

Eternity.

Civilization, Western.

Physical Description:

xv, 268 p. : ill.

Edition:

Course Book

Place of Publication:

Princeton : Princeton University Press, c2010.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

What is eternity? Is it anything other than a purely abstract concept, totally unrelated to our lives? A mere hope? A frightfully uncertain horizon? Or is it a certainty, shared by priest and scientist alike, and an essential element in all human relations? In A Very Brief History of Eternity, Carlos Eire, the historian and National Book Award-winning author of Waiting for Snow in Havana, has written a brilliant history of eternity in Western culture. Tracing the idea from ancient times to the present, Eire examines the rise and fall of five different conceptions of eternity, exploring how they developed and how they have helped shape individual and collective self-understanding. A book about lived beliefs and their relationship to social and political realities, A Very Brief History of Eternity is also about unbelief, and the tangled and often rancorous relation between faith and reason. Its subject is the largest subject of all, one that has taxed minds great and small for centuries, and will forever be of human interest, intellectually, spiritually, and viscerally.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Contents

Illustrations

Acknowledgments

I. Big Bang, Big Sleep, Big Problem

II. Eternity Conceived

III. Eternity Overflowing

IV. Eternity Reformed

V. From Eternity to Five-Year Plans

VI. Not Here, Not Now, Not Ever

Appendix: Common Conceptions of Eternity

Notes

Eternity: A Basic Bibliography

Index

Notes:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9786612458552

9781282458550

1282458558

9781400831876

1400831873

OCLC:

593209716